Facebook vs LinkedIn for Professional Service Firm Recruiting

On Tuesday, Facebook announced the launch of its new job board, Social Jobs Partnership. This long awaited announcement is the culmination of a year long partnership Facebook forged with the Department of Labor and other government agencies.

What does this mean for Professional Service firms?

With over 1.7 million openings already on the job board through partnerships with several recruiting agencies, what does this mean for professional service firm recruiting efforts? I believe firms can’t ignore Facebook anymore. While most have been hesitant to get on Facebook for personal reasons, I believe they need to at least look at Facebook from a company standpoint. The changing demographics of the CPA, Legal, Wealth Management and other professional service professions is something we can’t ignore. Across all professions I work with, there is or will be a talent shortage. As partners retire, there aren’t enough people to take their spots.

LinkedIn or Facebook?

It’s a bit early to tell what the impact of Facebook’s new job board will have on LinkedIn. However, I would venture to guess it won’t be as significant as some might speculate. First, the demographics of these sites are different. “Only 22% of users are above the age of 45” according to Forbes. While that number does represent 220 million users, well surpassing LinkedIn’s 175 million users, you have to take into account comfort level and engagement. Most of that market isn’t completely comfortable with engaging professionally on Facebook. On the other hand, LinkedIn was built solely for professional purposes and has built it’s entire brand around this.

I believe in order to be effective with their recruiting efforts, firms will need to use both platforms in different ways to reach the talent they want to recruit.